AkzoNobel

Today, AkzoNobel is known for delivering high-quality paint solutions for a range of diverse sectors, from the aerospace and automotive industries through to household decoration, bringing color and imagination into homes across the globe. In an increasingly competitive market, AkzoNobel aims to become a global industry that champions sustainable paints and coatings. To achieve this, the company identified a need to overhaul their global data governance strategy.

The challenge

Ramon Delgado, Process Manager Technical Data explains: “AkzoNobel had no centralized governance in place regarding either the internal technical data or the output for technical customerfacing data.” This absence of informational governance under standably caused issues – most acutely when it came to providing accurate, customerfacing technical data.

This was partly caused by the company’s business units (BUs) largely working in silos when it came to data governance, employing localized domains and systems that were often maintained manually. “Some units had mature approaches to data collection and usage,” he notes. “Others were still working with Excel documents and written notes.”

The challenge for AkzoNobel, therefore, was substantial yet clear. The creation of a closed system of data flow that delivered a single source of accurate, reliable information throughout all internal and externalfacing operations.

The solution

With their aims in place, AkzoNobel set about finding the right solution for their ambitions. “As a global company, we knew that having a comprehensive yet flexible PIM in place was essential to ensure communication between all our various source systems,” says Ramon. “inriver’s PIM solution was identified as the best way for us to do this.”

But technology alone is only one part of the transformation AkzoNobel sought. Another crucial aspect was identifying an implementation partner that could be there at every step of the journey. In Ctac, AkzoNobel found that partner. As inriver’s largest partner in the Netherlands, Ctac has extensive experience in building out exactly the type of global solution AkzoNobel required.

“The biggest win, though, is that our people now know there is a reliable point for all our technical data, both for internal systems and customerfacing marketplaces. That’s the biggest change. We now have one single source of truth.”

– Ramon Delgado, Process Manager Technical Data at AkzoNobel

The results

With a challenge as substantial as the one facing AkzoNobel, Ramon was not expecting results overnight. But despite the transformation still very much being a work-in-progress, there have already been some timely wins along the way. “It’s now easier for us to create technical datasheets,” says Ramon. “And even though we still have some issues with our specific requirements when it comes to technical data, we are working with Ctac and inriver to find a new solution for our needs. That is the flexibility of PIM.”